Chloride-Induced Stress Corrosion Cracking Tester for Austenitic Stainless Steel

Abstract In this paper, a new experimental tester was designed to improve the stability in load measurement and imposed environment for chloride-induced stress corrosion cracking (CISCC) testing of austenitic stainless steels that are used to construct spent nuclear fuel dry storage canisters. By fabricating compact tension specimens using the UNS S30400 stainless steel, the test is conducted by immersing the specimen in 5 % salinity artificial seawater at 50°C. From the measured load, the stress intensity factor is calculated and the crack length is measured by an optical microscope. The present experimental data confirm the existing findings that the CISCC growth rate is insensitive to the stress intensity factor but is dominantly affected by the specimen surface temperature. The crack growth rate also confirms the existing model.